Tyres

Avon Tyres

2012 is the beginning of Avon’s 101st year as a motorcycle tyre manufacturer and all of their production is still located in the UK. Amen to that. We are proud to be using their rubber.

The Avon Tyres factory at Melksham, Wiltshire, UK where they have been making motorcycle tyres since 1911. The site was originally home to a cloth mill.

Project leader Jim Lindsay remembers riding British Bikes wearing the Avon Speedmaster tyres. The front had a ribbed tread pattern while the rear had a square profile. It was common for the rear tyre to be fixed to the wheel rim by a security bolt which prevented the tyre from creeping under hard acceleration.

Although it shows a distinctly British drag racing venue, this 1967 advertisement for Avon drag racing slicks appeared in an American magazine. Avon have had a long history of involvement with motorcycle sport. Riders as far apart as Geoff Duke, Barry Sheene and Wayne Gardner have won races and championships on Avon. If anyone can tell us any who is riding the bike in this shot and where the event is, please drop us an email.

Avon sponsored the Roadrunner championship in the late seventies. The Production 1000cc class produced some great racing with the spectacular Laverda Jota of P K Davies often leading the field home.

This is the last of the old advertisements we will be showing. They didn’t actually make tyres in this colours. They sprayed them up for this USA advert promoting there off-road range. The style is unmistakably 1960s.

That’s quite enough history. To see how they make Avon Tyres in 2012, click here.

Enigma 1050 – a very British motorcycle being built in Hampshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Surrey, Sussex, Suffolk, Shropshire and Cambridgeshire.